Tiny work with gold, stones and fire. Nearly everything you make is for the biggest day of somebody's life.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$52,540
Starting at the bench
$35,580
Master bench jeweler or owner
$87,540
The national median is $52,540 a year, and the bottom tenth are near $35,580. The wage survey groups this as Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers, so bench jewelers, stone setters, appraisers and factory metal workers all sit in one number. Where you live matters a lot, because the work follows money.
About $35,000 to $42,000
Polishing, cleaning, sizing and simple repairs while you learn
Most people start as a polisher or a repair assistant. The first year is mostly building hand skills on work that cannot be ruined, because the materials are worth more than your wages.
$87,540 or more
Master benches, custom designers and shop owners
Nearly everyone at that level either owns the shop, does custom commissions, or holds a gemology credential and charges for appraisals as well as repairs.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is an apprenticeship at a working shop, which costs nothing and pays from day one, leaving you a set of files, pliers, saws, a torch and a flex shaft. Those spots are rare and usually go to people who already show hand skill, so the cheap door is a hard one to walk through. The high end is a one or two year bench jewelry program plus your own tools. The Gemological Institute of America graduate gemologist program and the two year program at North Bennet Street School in Boston both cost considerably more than that, and setting up your own bench later adds several thousand more plus insurance on the metal and stones.
An apprenticeship at a working shop costs nothing and pays from day one, but those spots are rare and usually go to people who already show hand skill.
Hourly at a store bench
Steady, and the most common arrangement. Repairs come in from the counter all day.
Per piece
Trade shops that take repair work from many stores often pay by the job.
Commission on custom work
Designing and making an original piece pays far better than sizing rings.
Retail margin
If you own the shop you make money on what you sell as well as on what you make.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Short schooling, then years of practice. Hands decide this one.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Art, metal shop, chemistry. Start making things now, in any material, and keep photographs of all of it.
Trade program or apprenticeship
1 to 2 years
A one or two year bench program, or a paid apprenticeship in a working shop if you can find one.
Learn stone setting
2 to 5 years of practice
The skill that separates a repair technician from a jeweler. It is taught, but mostly it is thousands of hours of practice.
Gemology, if you want it
6 to 12 months
The Graduate Gemologist credential from the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) lets you identify and grade stones and take appraisal work.
Your own bench or shop
After 5 or more years
Custom commissions, a studio, or a repair trade shop serving other stores.
Visual art and drawing
Customers need to see a design before you cut metal.
Metal shop or sculpture
Soldering, filing and finishing are the same skills at a smaller scale.
Chemistry
Alloys, pickle solutions, plating and why a torch does what it does.
Business or math
Metal is priced by weight and the market moves daily.
No state licenses jewelers and anyone can use the title. What is regulated is what you say about the goods: federal and state consumer protection rules govern how metal content is stamped and how gems may be described, and getting that wrong is fraud, not a mistake. Appraisals are where credentials matter most. Insurers take an appraisal seriously when it comes from someone with a recognized gemology qualification, and the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) Graduate Gemologist is the best known one.
North Bennet Street School
A two-year jewelry making and repair program in Boston, one of a handful of full-time bench schools in the country.
Gemological Institute of America
A nonprofit that teaches gemology and jewelry design and runs the laboratory that grades most diamonds.
Community college craft programs
Metalsmithing and jewelry courses, cheap, and enough to find out if you like the work.
A shop apprenticeship
Paid, rare, and the way most working bench jewelers actually learned.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Stone setting
Pave, channel and bezel work. The most valuable bench skill there is.
Graduate Gemologist
Grading and identifying stones, which opens appraisal and buying work.
CAD (computer-aided design) and 3D printing
Design on screen, print in wax, cast in metal. Most custom work is made this way now.
Laser welding and engraving
Repairs that were impossible with a torch, and machines most small shops do not have.
Steady hands and good close vision
You work under magnification on pieces smaller than a grain of rice.
Patience for redoing things
A setting that is slightly off gets cut out and done again.
Photography
Custom work sells from images. Bad photographs cost you commissions.
Being trusted
People hand you an heirloom and a wedding ring. Reputation is the whole business.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
The repair envelopes from the counter come first: ring sizings, a broken chain, a tightened setting, a prong rebuilt before a stone falls out. Each one is torch work, filing, polishing and a careful check under the microscope. Custom work fills the rest, and a piece might take a week across several days. Everything is weighed, logged and locked away, because the material on your bench is worth more than the bench.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Gold at 24 karat bends under a fingernail, so jewelry is alloyed with other metals. A 14 karat ring is a little over 58% gold, and a 18 karat one is 75%. That mix is why different gold jewelry feels and wears so differently.
The Gemological Institute of America created the system of describing a diamond by cut, color, clarity and carat weight. It is now used in shops and laboratories worldwide, and it came from an education charity rather than a company.
To make a ring smaller a jeweler cuts out a piece, closes the gap and solders it invisibly. To make it larger they cut it and add metal. Done well you cannot find the join, even under magnification.
North Bennet Street School in Boston runs a two-year jewelry making and repair program, and it is one of a very small number of full-time bench training programs in the country. Most jewelers still learn beside somebody at a shop.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.